Children of Russian spies released in historic prisoner swap had no idea they were Russian until the flight to Moscow

The two children of Russian spies Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, who were among the prisoners released on Thursday as part of a historic prisoner swap, found out they were Russian for the first time while being flown to Moscow, the Kremlin said.

Their parents were among 24 prisoners exchanged as part of an intricate, multi-country agreement that freed four Americans, including US Marine veteran Paul Whelan and WSJ journalist Evan Gershkovich, and Russian dissidents.

Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva were posing as an Argentine couple in Slovenia when they were arrested and convicted on espionage charges. Their two young children, a boy and a girl, flew to Moscow with them from Turkey on Thursday, as reported by CNN.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that the two kids "found out they were Russian only when the plane took off from Ankara." He explained that Russian President Vladimir Putin greeted the family on the tarmac in Spanish since the kids did not speak Russian.

Video footage of the family's arrival in Moscow shows President Putin holding two bouquets of flowers, one for the mother and the other for the daughter. He kissed a teary-eyed Anna Dultseva on the cheek as he welcomed the family back home to their native country. The children did not know who Putin was until Thursday.

"When the children came down the plane's steps - they don't speak Russian - and Putin greeted them in Spanish, he said, 'Buenas noches,'" Peskov said. "They asked their parents yesterday who it was that was meeting them, they didn't even know who Putin was."

After years of difficult discussions between the US, Russia, Belarus, and Germany, Berlin agreed to release convicted Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov in Thursday's big swap. Eight people, including Krasikov, were returned to Russia in exchange for 16 others, including Whelan and Gershkovich, and two other Americans.

On Wednesday before the exchange, Dulstev and Dultseva had pleaded guilty to spying in Ljubljana and were sentenced to prison. Undercover in Slovenia, Dultsev posed as IT businessman Ludvig Gisch and Dultseva posed as an art gallery dealer and owner under the name Maria Roda Mayer Munos. Both were planned to be deported to Russia.

In the call with journalists, Peskov stated that the FSB and CIA mostly negotiated prisoner exchanges between Russia and the US.